2026 Exhibitions
2026 Exhibits
In Summary:
Portraits | Colette Balcaen
Colette Balcaen’s textile project comprises sixteen no-sew quilted portraits of renowned Canadian female authors, reflecting the emotional impact of their works on her Franco-Manitoban identity and integrating quotations to connect viewers with the authors’ diverse experiences.
Woodland Grassland Wonderland | Earl Sinajon
Earl Sinajon’s ten acrylic paintings highlight the joy and significance of Manitoba’s boreal forests, prairie woodlands, and grasslands through daily interactions with the changing seasons.
Larsanity | Lars Stoltz
Lars Stoltz’s exhibition features ten hot-knife on cedar pieces, 32″48″ each, showcasing iconic characters from horror films signed by the actors and new pieces depicting Indigenous spirits.
Muses | Martine Bilodeau
Martine Bilodeau’s sixteen oil paintings on canvas reflect on young girls’ self-perception influenced by societal standards, emphasizing the need for girls to recognize their worth and embrace their inner muse.
Walking in Iceland | Nichol Marsch
Nichol Marsch’s twelve matte rag print photographs from her “Walking in Iceland” series explores identity, self-reflection, and personal healing through images taken during her residency in Iceland.
12a Joni Mitchell, Colette Balcaen
Portraits | Colette Balcaen
Medium and number of works: Textile, 16
Dimensions: 28 in x 34
Description:
Portraits feature sixteen portraits of prominent Canadian authors, all influential in Canadian literature. These authors’ books resonate with Colette’s cultural identity and heritage. Their experiences as women and the emotions they convey inspired Colette to create artworks honouring them. Historically, textiles have been linked to women’s work and fashion, which drew Colette to the no-sew quilting method. She selected fabrics based on their textures, colours, and emotional responses to the authors’ writings. Her choices, described as fragile yet resilient, raw or refined, vibrant or subdued, reflect her interpretation of the messages conveyed.
Portraits aim to create an intimate atmosphere around these personalities, giving them a voice by incorporating quotations from their books. Visitors can connect with the portraits through the emotions reflected in the different writing styles. Colette’s research highlights her personal feelings as a Franco-Manitoban woman influenced by diverse women writers, including Anne Hébert, Antonine Maillet, Gabrielle Roy, Carol Shields, Margaret Laurence, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Nellie McClung, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, June Callwood, Joni Mitchell, Nancy Huston, Dionne Brand, Denise Chong, Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, and Annette Saint-Pierre.
Evocative Rich Grass Field, Earl Sinajon
Woodland Grassland Wonderland | Earl Sinajon
Medium and number of works: Acrylic Painting, 10.
Description:
Earl’s artwork aims to convey a vision of joyfulness by highlighting the beauty of our daily interactions with the environment and the changing seasons. His work focuses on the splendour of Manitoba’s boreal forests, prairie woodlands, and grasslands, emphasizing their significance and importance.
Larsanity | Lars Stoltz
Medium and number of works: Hotknife on Cedar, 10
Dimensions: 32”x48”
Description:
This exhibition shows Stoltzs’ unique talent as a professional hotknife artist, featuring ten pieces, each 32″48″. Famous actors who portrayed the characters burnt into the wood signed four works: Robert Englund (Freddy), Nick Castle (Michael Myers), Doug Bradley (Pinhead), and Ari Lehman (Jason). Stoltz is creating a new line of three pieces depicting indigenous spirits, including a spirit eagle, a world turtle, and a mythological Cree spirit.
Mr. Myers, Lars Stoltz
Ballerina Resting, Martine Bilodeau
Martine Bilodeau
Medium and number of works: Original Oil on Canvas, 16
Dimensions: 28″x 34″
Description:
In her “Muses” series of oil paintings on canvas, Martine Bilodeau explores how young girls’ self-perception has been shaped by advertisements and societal expectations. These influences often depicted girls as objects to be controlled, rather than celebrated individuals. Bilodeau advocates for change, urging girls to recognize their intrinsic worth and embrace their inner muse.
Bilodeau grew up in a rural area of Quebec, on 300 acres of forest. Her parents had limited formal education, casting uncertainty on her future. Her family was seen as outsiders due to their remote location. Moving to the city, she felt a similar alienation from her rural background. She found solace in daydreaming, escaping the restrictions placed on her.
Her journey led her from Germany to Vancouver and into a 25-year film industry career—an unlikely dream during her youth. She established homes on the West Coast and in Mexico, where she now creates art. Her journey reflects her resolve to defy expectations and succeed.
Walking in Iceland | Nichol Marsch
Medium and number of works: Photography, Matte Rag Prints, 12.
Description:
Nichol Marsch primarily works in multimedia sculptural installations, focusing on self-reflective themes such as social constructs, identity, place, and invariability. Her abstract approach emphasizes process and materials, embodying lived experiences and observations of social structures and mundane routines. Her work features collection, repetition, and accumulation, ranging from unique pieces to large installations, often displayed in precise, ordered patterns. She frequently uses photography and digital editing to create these patterns and final exhibition pieces.
“Walking in Iceland” centers on identity, self-reflection, and exploration, using images taken during a residency in Iceland. There, Marsch engaged in personal healing alongside her art practice. She combines found images with her documentation, constructing new images through layering—a method integral to her practice. This process distills 10 to 100 images into single nonrepresentational forms, capturing their collective essence in new abstract ways. These abstractions often translate into her beadwork and embroidery, offering new modes of exploration free from distinct representational forms.
During her residency, Marsch captured images while walking alone in Iceland, reflecting on her personal life and managing mundane tasks akin to those at home, informing her current series.
The Shores, Nichol Marsch
Mini Prints, Nichol Marsch